Hogwarts: A History
by wouldtheywriteasongforyou
Summary: Granddad Weasley reads Ginny a bedtime story about princesses, pirates, and a quest for the holy grail. "Is it a true story?"


**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: Lizziebee loves the Princess Bride, Weasleys, and happily ever afters. I love her (and Monty Python).**

Written for the QL competition (round seven, puddles chaser two: "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." ― André Gide, _Autumn Leaves _; freedom ; Dementors ; Hufflepuff's Cup) ; Create A Potion Challenge (Polyjuice ingredient #2: leeches – a character who is trapped and cannot escape a situation)

And, of course, written for the buzz to my lightyear (TheNextFolchart).

3 August 2014. Word Count:

**"Is it a true story?"**

* * *

**Hogwarts: A History**

[-]

"Oh, dear," Molly Weasley frowns as she looks from her bedridden seven-year-old daughter to the thermometer she holds in her hand. The digits on the thermometer's face are way above a healthy normal range. "Looks like someone is coming down with a case of faerie flu."

Her daughter's eyes widen with panic. "No, I can't be!" she protests. "Granddad promised to take me to the London Zoo this weekend. I _can't _be sick. Look, Mummy, I'm perfectly healthy!" Ginny's lie is interrupted by an untimely cough that leaves her head pounding and her breathing shallow.

Molly places a soothing head on her daughter's clammy forehead. "Shh, dear. You and Granddad can go to the zoo another day. Right now, what you need is rest and chicken noodle soup for you to get better."

There is a knock on the bedroom door. A still-handsome, balding redheaded man peeks in from around the doorframe.

"Granddad!" Ginny exclaims exuberantly and moves her legs as if she is going to get out of bed to hug him, but he quickly makes a hand motion that clearly means _stay_.

"My, my, Gin-bug," Granddad Weasley shakes his head. "You're looking a little rough around the edges."

Ginny pouts. "I'm sorry we can't go to the zoo today. Mummy won't let me."

Molly rolls her eyes at her daughter's accusation while Granddad laughs.

"Next time, then," he promises at the same time Molly says while leaving the bedroom, "For good reason, too." Granddad shakes his head, eyes twinkling with merriment and continues speaking to Ginny. "But if you're up for it, I'd still like to spend the day with my favourite granddaughter."

Ginny crinkles her nose. "But Granddad," she says in a little kid voice that is both a whine and full of childish innocence. "I'm your _only_ granddaughter."

"Is that so?" he says with surprise. "Well. Imagine that."

Ginny is impatient, though, and curious as to what he has planned for the two of them. "What is it, Granddad? What are we doing today?"

Granddad settles himself into a nearby chair and withdraws a leather-bound book from inside his coat pocket. "I thought I would tell you a story."

"_Hogwarts: A History_," Ginny reads off the title scrawled in a gold script on the cover. "Is it a true story?"

He thinks about the answer for a moment "Yes, I believe this version is. It's a bit different than the text you would find in a classroom, though."

"Are there princesses? Pirates? Buried treasure?"

"Why don't you wait and see? I don't want to spoil the story for you."

She settles back under her covers and looks at him expectantly. Granddad puts on his spectacles and then flips open to the first page.

"Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away . . . ."

x

Helga Hufflepuff was a fair maiden with straw-coloured ringlets and eyes as blue as the river that bordered her family's farm. Helga was not of noble birth but her beauty and intelligence could have tricked the most pure bloodlines into believing she was of aristocratic heritage.

The Hufflepuff family lived in a small kingdom called Hogwarts which was notable for its blacksmiths. The swords they crafted were the steel that flashed through legends and adorned the arms of knights and heroes. Though the Hufflepuffs were not blacksmiths themselves, they did house a blacksmith apprentice in their farm's forge.

Godric was what they called him. At least, that was what he was known as to everyone who was not Helga; she called him "Farm Boy".

"Farm boy," she would interrupt Godric and the blacksmith when they were hard at work pounding away in the forge. "Fetch me a pail of water." There were empty buckets at Helga's feet, yet she could not be bothered to get the water herself.

He would stop his work to do her bidding. "As you wish," Godric would respond each and everytime. Those were the only three words he would say to Helga, though she longed to hear three other words. But they soon understood that each time he said "as you wish", he actually meant "I love you".

When they came upon this realisation, Helga wished for them to be wed to each other at once, for true love could not wait. The problem was, Godric was a lowly serf and had no land or riches to his name. Helga proposed that Godric pretend he was a knight of noble birth so he could join - and hopefully win - jousting tournaments and receive the monetary prizes. Godric set off for a tournament the very next sunrise.

A fortnight later, an owl delivered terrible news to the Hufflepuffs. Word on the street was that Godric had been attacked by the barbaric Black pirates and had not been granted mercy. Helga cried for days and locked herself up in a tower when she heard about Godric's fate.

Hogwarts had a prince who was in desperate need of a bride, though. Prince Riddle rode by Hufflepuff Farm, took one look at Helga, and decided she was The One.

"I must have you as my Queen," he very nearly demanded of her.

However, her heart still belonged to Godric, so she refused his proposal, much to his dismay. But Helga's family would not let her have the freedom to reject Prince Riddle's hand in marriage, and so she and Riddle were engaged that very night.

"I can't marry him," she wept. "My only choice now is to fake my death and run away. Perhaps I could find these Black pirates and see if the rumours are true about my dear Godric. But where would these pirates be? The oracle would know; I should go to her."

Helga stole away that night and left for the house of the witch down the road - this witch could occasionally predict the future. Trelawney, the oracle, said a bunch of gibberish, brewed an irrelevant cauldron of nasty and foul smelling ingredients, but after a while volunteered the information that Helga would have to go on a quest for the holy grail if answers were what she sought.

"The holy grail?" Helga asked.

Trelawney nodded sagely. "Aye, a badger cup of about this height and that width." She made a bunch of nonsensical hand gestures that Helga did not understand. "It's an enchanted cup with a bit of soul trapped inside that can't escape unless someone frees it."

"Oh?"

"Well, not so much of a soul, I s'pose. Really, it's a Dementor. That's the technical term. It is a soul-eater, if that clarifies things."

It didn't.

"This isn't any Dementor: it will give you a Kiss - that's what they call it when it takes a bit of your soul - in exchange for three wishes."

"That's brilliant!" Helga exclaimed. "Oh, thank you, Lady Trelawney. This will solve everything!"

Trelawney frowned and her beaded necklaces clanged against each other ominously. "Beware, m'dear. In your future, I see that you and those you love are in such grave danger." (Helga did not hear, for she had already left the cottage and had started her quest for the holy grail.)

The first place she happened upon was a forest that looked dark, dangerous, and downright forbidden. The sun had set while Helga had been at Trelawney's, and twilight had faded into night without her realising it until just then. Helga shivered as she stepped inside the gloomy place.

"H-h-hello?" she called. "Is there a Dementor hidden inside of a cup somewhere in here?"

A wolf (not a werewolf, for it wasn't a full moon) howled in response. The forest came alive immediately, and the eyes of beasts of all sizes started to glow in an advancing ring around her.

Helga jumped in fright and tried to make a dash for the exit that had all but disappeared in the fog and trees. After a few panicked seconds, it quickly became obvious that she was lost.

However, being in a life or death situation put things in perspective for Helga. "Are you a witch or what?" she asked herself. "Accio holy grail!"

But nothing happened.

The beasts were upon her once again, so Helga Apparated, and just barely survived, for one had its jaws clamped upon her red riding cloak, and another was a sliver of a second away from snapping her neck.

She was at a cliffside, now, with the wind pushing her this way and that while the ocean rose up high on the rocks as it tried to claim her. She saw there was a cavern, and decided that would have been a perfect hiding spot for the elusive cup. She clambered over the slick and rough rocks to get to the cave and scraped her limbs along the way. Her knees were especially torn and bloodied, and she accidentally smeared a bit on the cave walls during her search for the back of the cave. Unknowingly, she had made a blood sacrifice and had opened the way to the underground lake, which she soon came upon whilst she was looking for an end to the cave's tunnel.

There was a boat leading to the centre of the lake where there was also a glowing green basin. Thus, Helga climbed in and rowed her way over to it. It was on a little island, so she got out of her boat. Once closer, it became clear the glowing green was actually a liquid potion she must ingest if she wanted to get to the bottom of the basin. She drank it all and found a locket - not a cup - at the bottom. Helga took it - it was so incredibly pretty and she wanted it dearly - but suddenly a masked man jumped out of the water and at her.

"Who dares trespass and steal from the pirates of Black Lake?" the masked man roared. "I sense you have stolen the locket of invisibility - show yourself, thief, so the sword of Gryffindor might have the pleasure of making your acquaintance!"

Helga did no such thing and tried to get back to her boat. She almost succeeded except she wasn't the first to attempt to steal from the pirates, so Gryffindor knew all of the tricks already.

"It is I, Helga Hufflepuff!" she announced and ripped off the cursed necklace so the man would stop slashing at the air with his golden sword. (He did stop upon hearing her name.) "I am on a quest looking for my love, Godric. It is popular belief that he ran into some trouble with the Black pirates; is that true?"

"Aye," Gryffindor answered gravely.

"Does he live?"

"Nay, m'lady."

"Oh." She had grieved so much for Godric already that she could not find it in herself to shed another tear lest she drown herself from the inside out in her grief. Helga looked to his sword. "Would you terribly mind - ?" She mimed slitting her throat.

"But m'lady, you mustn't!" Gryffindor said, completely aghast.

"Please," she said. "It would be a favour to us both." She placed the locket in his hand and waited expectantly.

"As you wish," Gryffindor said resignedly, though he was not going to take Helga's life.

Helga's eyes widened. "Godric? Is that you behind the mask?"

"I am Godric no more. I am a sworn brother of the Black - Gryffindor is my name."

"Godric! Oh, Godric!" She made to remove his mask but he gently stopped her.

"I am afraid you might not like what you find. A pirate's life is not kind nor lovely."

"Oh, but you are both no matter who or what or where you are. Say you'll have me - land and riches have no worth to me anymore, not when I have you and your love in comparison."

"Only if you'll have me," he responded right before they kissed.

x

"And they all lived happily ever after."

Granddad slowly closed the storybook and pressed a gentle kiss to his dreaming granddaughter's forehead. Before he left Ginny's bedroom and turned off the light, he left a replica cup on her nightstand.

Engraved on its face was a badger and Hufflepuff's crest.

[-]


End file.
